mices - Gun.Smoke tribute, Broken Pearl, Twin Tiger Shark

[Iori Branford]

It's a good sign when even pre-1.0 I feel addiction kicking in. That 2nd- or 3rd-loop bullet speed right from the start, wow.
Android hopeful I take it? Or you just prefer Java dev for other reasons?

[BPzeBanshee]

Keep the music. iOS and XBLIG games have done worse than have a too-close-for-comfort tribute song.

I'll play this soon enough once I'm not working.

[mice]

Personally it gets no points from me for being a complete clone...but, depends what your going for, its very faithful, cant imagine it closer.
Very well done,..but

Keep the music. iOS and XBLIG games have done worse than have a too-close-for-comfort tribute song.

Aaargh, this really is an awkward problem.
The first stage is sooo much more fun with the tribute tune. Hasse remade it a bit, so we'll use that one on stage 1 and the old "too close" one on stage 6 on the second loop. Maybe...

Android hopeful I take it? Or you just prefer Java dev for other reasons?

Because Java roxxor!
Going out on OUYA and XBLIG.

[BPzeBanshee]

Finally got around to playing this a bit more, on a laptop outputting to a 1920x1080 monitor, and it still seems like it's being squished even more than usual when not TATEd unless I set it to the monitor's resolution.

Volume difference on the music seems inconsistent. Can barely hear the stage 1 music, had to turn down the speakers for stage 2.

Apart from that I think it's shaping up really nicely now. The helper planes seem just right.

[mice]

Volume difference on the music seems inconsistent.

Yes, I got the normalized music yesterday so that thing's been sorted now.

Apart from that I think it's shaping up really nicely now. The helper planes seem just right.

Thanks! I think the planes work really well as well. And the Twin Hawk cheat doesn't seem to work either.

Got challenged by a friend to make a "naked" (picking up/using only bombs and helper planes) run, since he thought the game was too hard. A side effect of that is that I've now got proper input-recording in place. So for the OUYA version you will be able to upload your run along with the hiscore.
But I still haven't been able to clear stage 2 "naked"...but anyway.

[mice]

Removed the playback option...my freakin' engine isn't deterministic.

Difficulty settings easy and normal are now "For Fun" and "For Real". And "For Fun" is the default one.
Made that diff setting a bit harder as well. So for real is now...hard, which was the default normal. My, how times change...
Also the "Big bomber" bullet pattern is a bit...more...than before.
Removed the Cyber Rainforce tune, didn't fit the other tunes.

Uploaded what might be the final version to XBLIG playtest now...maybe.

[mice]

Now with online hiscores for the PC version:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 0111-2.zip

Had to do a name-enter screen, but that was quite fun.

[railslave]

Now with online hiscores for the PC version:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 0111-2.zip

Had to do a name-enter screen, but that was quite fun.

Got a funny feeling "Its on"

[mice]

railslave: You name didn't fit, though. Sorry about that.
Maybe I should do a proper embedded list instead of the web page one?

[railslave]

http://www.widepixelgames.com/hiscores/ ... s#RAILSLAV

Well done, really well made and fun...

How am i level 1-1 ? (a bug ? ) got past the twin plane boss , exactly how big is this ?

[mice]

Sure sounds like a bug, if you got past the twins you should be on 1-3.
But, I tested it (as can be seen in the list)...so I don't get it.

Ah, found it. Uploaded new version. Huge thanks!

[railslave]

The Illuminati just called, this is your next tribute

[mice]

Rail! Re-download the ZIP, you're still running on the buggy one.

[mice]

Seems like there still is a bug with the hiscore stage saving.

Who is Qwqwqw? Is that you too railslave? 3,8M can't really be stage 1-2...
The record for ALX seems to be faulty as well.
http://widepixelgames.com/hiscores/?g=tts

Wish I saved/view the build-version inside the app so I could debug this.
Implementing it now...

[Herr Schatten]

The record for ALX seems to be faulty as well.

That would be mine then. I can confirm that I actually reached stage 2-1.

Great, great game. I've got only a few niggles: 1. I get a little bit of screen tearing if I run the game without using one of the batch files to switch the screen resolution. 2. The highest level of the blue weapon seems considerably weaker than the penultimate level, because there's less coverage and you can't point blank enemies. Is this intentional?

Btw, what is the secret to unlocking the extra stage? I assume it has something to do with how you beat the stone idol boss? The first time I played the lower difficulty (in an earlier build) I got to the extra stage, but I haven't been able to repeat it since.

[mice]

The record for ALX seems to be faulty as well.

That would be mine then. I can confirm that I actually reached stage 2-1.

Thanks!
I can see that the mysterious Qwqwqw2 has registred a score with v1.21 but that still seems to be wrong...3,7M should be 2-3, not 1-3...maaan, this bug is tiresome, works like a charm when I test it...

Great, great game. I've got only a few niggles: 1. I get a little bit of screen tearing if I run the game without using one of the batch files to switch the screen resolution. 2. The highest level of the blue weapon seems considerably weaker than the penultimate level, because there's less coverage and you can't point blank enemies. Is this intentional?

Thanks again!
1. This is why I don't do PC games.
Not using the BAT files means you get a resolution of 1280x720.
So you should get the same result when starting that 1280x720 BAT file as well. Is that the case?
And do you use the 1024x768 BAT file when there's no tearing?
2. Yes, it's intentional. The power in each lightning needs to be of that power to even work against the bosses.
I've thought about this quite a bit, but if you think it's something negative I should definitely fix it, somehow. Any suggestions?

Btw, what is the secret to unlocking the extra stage? I assume it has something to do with how you beat the stone idol boss? The first time I played the lower difficulty (in an earlier build) I got to the extra stage, but I haven't been able to repeat it since.

That was a bug in the previous version. Stage 2-6 got directly after 1-5, which was a shortcut, to say the least.
So stage 6 is only present on the second loop.

[Herr Schatten]

Not using the BAT files means you get a resolution of 1280x720.
So you should get the same result when starting that 1280x720 BAT file as well. Is that the case?

Yes.

And do you use the 1024x768 BAT file when there's no tearing?

Yes, but the pixel's edges look smoothed then.

Yes, it's intentional. The power in each lightning needs to be of that power to even work against the bosses.
I've thought about this quite a bit, but if you think it's something negative I should definitely fix it, somehow. Any suggestions?

I don't really think that it needs fixing. It's just a bit anticlimactic when you finally get that badass looking weapon and it feels weaker than the one you had before. The only way of 'fixing' this that I can think of would be to make the lightning bolts piercing, but that would probably make the weapon vastly overpowered. Due to its large screen coverage, it's already considerably more powerful than the red weapon anyway. (This applies only during the levels, though. When battling the bosses, the roles are reversed.)

Maybe you should make the blue weapon weaker. That would make its last level feel more in line with the growth in power, too, if you leave that one as it is.

That was a bug in the previous version. Stage 2-6 got directly after 1-5, which was a shortcut, to say the least.
So stage 6 is only present on the second loop.

Well, that explains why the bullets were so fast all of a sudden.

[mice]

I don't really think that it needs fixing. It's just a bit anticlimactic when you finally get that badass looking weapon and it feels weaker than the one you had before

Changed it so it's now a 5-way lightning. Don't know if it fixed the issue totally, but I think it feels a bit better to be honest.

[n0rtygames]

I got a chance to play this this morning, had a blast with my morning drink. Really damned good fun. I like a lot of the changes you've made and extra stuff that's been added since the first time I played.

I don't really play the original you're paying homage to, so can't comment so much on the authenticity but this really has a nice arcade feel to it. Great job

[mice]

Thanks!
Erm, the xbox version requires a online hiscore table as well, yes? Like jwatte's highscores2 thing.
So this might make me sound like a...noob, but I do need gold membership to test/develop this, right?

[Herr Schatten]

Changed it so it's now a 5-way lightning. Don't know if it fixed the issue totally, but I think it feels a bit better to be honest.

It really does feel a lot better that way, thanks.

[n0rtygames]

Sort of... If you come on irc later I'll help you out if you want

[mice]

Changed it so it's now a 5-way lightning. Don't know if it fixed the issue totally, but I think it feels a bit better to be honest.

It really does feel a lot better that way, thanks.

Super!

Now, do I do extra main character planes, which have different formations for the helper planes?
* Red plane - Twin Hawk like (as it is now)
* Blue plane - Orbiting satellite planes
* Green plane - Fixed satellite planes
* Cyan plane - No extra planes, gets a bomb instead
* Etc...

Or, am I done?

[emphatic]

Now, do I do extra main character planes, which have different formations for the helper planes?
* Red plane - Twin Hawk like (as it is now)
* Blue plane - Orbiting satellite planes
* Green plane - Fixed satellite planes
* Cyan plane - No extra planes, gets a bomb instead
* Etc...

Or, am I done?

Perhaps a heli?

[n0rtygames]

A green heli?

(with rotating options!)

[railslave]

experimental ww2 jetpack?

[BPzeBanshee]

A green heli?

(with rotating options!)

A black heli with rockets and Ernest Borginine as pilot!

[mice]

I should never have asked...
Different speeds and smart bomb types as well then, maybe?
But do I really want to do this?

Having looked through the p2p hiscore code (and seing the changes I need to make to it) really made me want to skip that as well.
Maybe I should do the show-QR-code-to-upload-hiscore-thing (discussed somewhere else in the forums, I think) so everyone shares the same hiscore board?

[railslave]

A green heli?

(with rotating options!)

A black heli with rockets and Ernest Borginine as pilot!

You don't know what that heli does to me

[n0rtygames]

I should never have asked...
Different speeds and smart bomb types as well then, maybe?
But do I really want to do this?

Having looked through the p2p hiscore code (and seing the changes I need to make to it) really made me want to skip that as well.
Maybe I should do the show-QR-code-to-upload-hiscore-thing (discussed somewhere else in the forums, I think) so everyone shares the same hiscore board?

That codebase you've looked at is hideously and unnecessarily complicated if it's the one I'm thinking of. The stuff I use just runs on its own thread in one single class. It's very very very simple.

When you start the game, you hunt for a session. When you join a session, everyone starts spamming scores to each other. When a score is received, the values get passed to another class.

Presumably, you have local high scores that have their own little class - i.e

public class ScoreEntry
{
int mlScore;
string msInitials;
int mlShipType;
}

Right? You have a List<ScoreEntry> too?

Your high score table code already allows you to throw ANY score at it regardless of what it already contains - does not accept duplicates, only adds scores that are higher than a previous score - right? So you just throw scores at it in a very "fire and forget" fashion. Just wrap in try/catch.

When you break it down, it's really very very simple. Do not fear it just because it's new territory...

Anyway, p2p scores are shit - so nobody would really mind if you skipped them. It's impossible to do proper online scores with XBLIG because.. well.. Microsoft. It's also kinda dangerous since most people won't give this a proper test in peer review - so hell, I'm thinking of skipping it myself for Burst. It's not really that big a deal and frankly for the prices we charge on XBLIG I think you'd have to be a bit of a stain to complain.

Perhaps however - instead of *just* QR codes - dev forum could actually band together and come up with a way of generating codes that can be entered centrally somewhere to maintain scores. We've discussed this before.. maybe time to resurrect that topic and actually do it...

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43389 ?